Match Preview: Brentford B vs Huddersfield Town EDS

Brentford B face Huddersfield Town's Elite Development Squad at Jersey Road this afternoon, Wednesday 12 September, with kick-off at 1pm. Supporters are welcome to attend the Brentford training ground in Hounslow, when gates open at noon.

The Opposition

Huddersfield Town were one of the first teams to adopt playing their own fixture schedue after Brentford developed a B Team in 2016. This month they head to Portugal when The Bees set off for Switzerland, but first the two teams meet in West London.

This summer the squad travelled to Germany and the Czech Republic for a pre-season tour. They drew 1-1 with Sparta Prague and 2-2 with Bayern Munich, either side of a 4-0 defeat by Viktoria Plzen.

The B Team have only played this Terriers side once before, last season on 28 November. That day ended in a 2-0 defeat for The Bees as Dominic Tear netted a brace in West Yorkshire.

The hosts took the lead after quarter of an hour, a low ball from the left turned home by Tear in the middle. With 38 minutes gone, the lead was doubled as Joe Lolley's shot was parried back into the path of Tear who poked home a second of the morning.

Opposition Boss

Former Town centre-back Mark Hudson is the Head Coach of Huddersfield's Development side. With over 400 professional appearances in the Football League, the Guildford-born coach was put in charge of the youth squad in January this year.

Hudson, 36, was an intimidating defender for all of his 18-year career in the game. He started out at Fulham before spending some time at Crystal Palace and Charlton Athletic. Cardiff City was where he found his stride, making over 140 competitive appearances for The Bluebirds between 2009 and 2014. He signed off his playing career at Huddersfield Town, playing 102 league games and netting five times.

Brentford B

The Bees come into this game on the back of two wins from two, both against AFC Bournemouth U23s at Griffin Park and then the Vitality Stadium. Last time out, Joe Hardy and Ali Coote scored in a 3-0 win over The Cherries on the south coast. A Ryan Glover own goal completed the scoring that night.

Moses Odubajo is expected to continue his recovery to full fitness against The Terriers today, with several of the other B Team players returning from international duty. Jonny Mitchell, Patrik Gunnarsson, David Titov and Jaakko Oksanen have all been away with their nations this week.

Pre-Match Feature

We caught up with Head Coach Kevin O'Connor this week to discuss the opening to the season, and how things are going from a coaching perspective. You can watch the full Quarterly Update below:

Match Coverage

There will be live updates on Brentford's Twitter feed @brentfordfc as well as full highlights on Brentford's YouTube Channel after the match. Behind the scenes coverage can be found on our new dedicated Instagram Channel @brentfordbteam.

Match Report: Brentford B 1 Huddersfield Town EDT 3

Brentford B were beaten 3-1 by Huddersfield Town Development Squad at Jersey Road on Wednesday afternoon. The home side took the lead through Reece Cole in the first half but the visitors replied immediately before going on to secure the match in the second half.

Kevin O'Connor included Moses Odubajo in the team that started the afternoon's encounter, alongside Mads Bech Sorensen and Luka Racic in defence. Goalkeeper Patrik Gunnarsson was the only player who played international football last week to make the starting XI. Town included four First Team players, including goalkeeper Ryan Schofield and Juninho Bacuna.

The Bees took the lead after only seven minutes. Ali Coote found a pass to Odubajo, who was tripped by Aaron Rowe as he made a burst for the box. Cole stepped up to place the ball down before shooting at goal, finding the top left corner to put his team a goal ahead.

Town were right back in the game, only five minutes later they had levelled the score. Rarmani Edmonds-Green nodded down a Gunnarsson goal-kick, Colin Quaner collected it and from then on it was a terrific solo goal. Sweeping forward, he beat Nikolaj Kirk on the wing, then cut inside and rounded Sorensen. Luka Racic sprinted across to get in the way but it wasn't enough, Quaner slipped the ball under the defender and past Gunnarsson into the net.

The Terriers had taken the lead before the half-hour mark. A long ball forward by goalkeeper Schofield was brought down by Hamid Sabiri. The winger knocked it forward, shrugged off a challenge from Sorensen and then struck the ball low into the bottom left corner from a narrow angle.

Just before half-time Cole had another chance from free-kick range when Joe Hardy was downed by Edmonds-Green in a similar area to the first set piece. This time he couldn't keep the ball down and it sailed over the crossbar.

Hardy himself then sent one over the top in the final seconds of added time. Collecting a through ball from Odubajo, he turned into space before lashing the chance high and wide of the target.

After the restart, Brentford continued the push to get back on level terms. Canice Carroll had the best chance straight away when he turned in the box and struck one on the volley, only for Schofield to parry at close range.

A couple of minutes later it was Hardy who was in on goal. Cole took a quick free-kick in the middle of the field allowing Ali Coote to push forward. He slotted a pass through to Hardy, who turned onto his left foot but struck his effort just over the top left of the goal.

A perfectly-timed pass from Juninho Bacuna found Demeaco Duhaney on the right after 73 minutes. He darted down the wing, then cut inside, barged Sorensen off the ball before tucking his finish just inside the post past Gunnarsson to make it 3-1.